Work Your Personal Brand into Your LinkedIn Profile

Turn a bland online brand into a pop of personality for your professional personal brand.

Curate your personal brand on LinkedIn to communicate not just your capabilities, but the personality you bring to your profession.  

Research shows that the majority of recruiters check social media profiles during the recruitment process. Savvy clients and customers are likely to do the same. The best brands don’t just promote their products and services; they market like a magnet and pull you into their personality. Your personal brand should be no different. Brands spend big bucks creating brand personalities; the beauty of personal branding is that your personal brand is already personal. With little techniques, you can embrace more of what already makes you unique in the marketplace. 

1. Add your personal brand style 

As the saying goes, dress for the job you want, not the job you have. If you already have the job you love, dress the part for your personal brand. Don’t just settle for any photo you already have. Put your best personal brand foot forward in your LinkedIn profile photo. 

In The Unfair Advantage, Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba say: 

“Your Status is your personal brand. It is how others see you. It is your social standing, your appearance, your gender, your age, and how you dress, stand, and talk. It’s also your perceived credibility.”

What is the style personality of your personal brand?

What does your wardrobe choice communicate for your personal brand? As I’ve shared in my previous blogs, understand your style personality and project that in your public personal brand with intention. This is nearly always about being more of what you already are, rather than recreating your personal brand’s personal style. 

Hair 

If you have hair to work with, what is your hairstyle saying for you? Straight, curly or wavy? Super straight says sleek. A wave is more relaxed. Curls can come across as expressive.  

Makeup  

A bit of makeup can be a subtle form of self-expression. Think, a signature bold lip. Depending on your ideal roles, industry or clients, your choice of makeup can also be excessive, so be intentional about your makeup on LinkedIn. 

When picking the setting for your photo, communicate your personal brand’s personality and subtly speak to your personal brand values. 

2. Add your signature colour

Over time, humans have been conditioned to attribute certain connotations to certain colours. For example, consider these common colour meanings: 

Black: Elegance, power, mystery, authority and formality

White: Purity, simplicity, cleanliness, perfection and innocence

Blue: Trust, authority, intelligence, friendliness and calm

If you have built your professional personal brand around a signature colour, add this to the look and feel of your profile. Integrate your signature colour into your LinkedIn profile banner, and if you write articles, use the colour in your thumbnails. If it suits your style, wear your personal brand colour - always a really nice, nuanced touch for integrating your personal brand style at all levels. 

3. Add your personal brand purpose to your headline

Simon Sinek said it best in Start With Why:

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Use your LinkedIn headline to communicate your personal brand’s purpose. Think bigger picture than your current role and current title. As a part of your headline, answer the question “So what?” Why does what you do matter? What motivates you to do what you do?

For more on how to write a better LinkedIn headline, see my previous blog. 

4. Tell your professional personal story

Use your About Me to add personality to your professional personal brand. Compared to your resume, your LinkedIn profile is the perfect place to share a little more of your personal voice and creative flair. This works whether you have a bold personal brand or a more serious one. Simply use a tone of voice that’s unique to you. 

When I have personal brand coaching clients who struggle with their About Me , I encourage them to focus on their stories. What propelled you into your career path? Your ‘founder’ story might have begun from childhood, or it might have been born from a more recent career crossroads.  Even a few storytelling-style sentences here can add personal brand personality to an otherwise bland professional profile. 

5. Merchandise your profile for maximum appeal 

Don’t settle for the default settings of your LinkedIn profile. Your profile can be refreshed for maximum impact on your personal brand. 

The ‘Activity’ section of your LinkedIn profile will automatically show you the latest posts unless you tell it otherwise. You have the option to instead choose: 

• Comments

• Videos

• Images

• Articles

• Newsletter

• Events

• Documents

If you publish articles, videos or newsletters, one of these would be my personal go-to as it showcases your expertise and can add a nice visual pop for your signature personal brand style or colour to your profile. If you don’t have these, I still find the alternative options more interesting than the default posts. 

Perhaps you’ve published papers or you regularly host events? The photos from your latest events and achievements also personalise your page. Or, if you’re everyone’s biggest cheerleader on LinkedIn or always adding thoughtfully to industry conversation, the “comments” setting could be for you.

No matter what you choose, all options are still accessible to viewers. But, being intentional here is like curating the shop front window of your personal brand to draw people into the value and style of your professional personal brand. 

With a few personalised touches, turn a boring professional brand into one tastefully brimming with your personal brand’s personality - because there’s only one you in the marketplace.